The Limits and Possibilities of Asylum: Lessons from Expert Witnessing and Volunteering at a Shelter

Abstract

Working as a researcher, expert witness, and refugee shelter worker quickly raises questions of whether such engagements are reinforcing institutions and structures of power that reproduce racism, economic and social inequality, militarization of our borders, and foreign and immigration policies of violence and exclusion. At the same time, engaged methods of research inside institutions such as U.S. immigration courts and refugee shelters offer a portal onto how such institutions might be reimagined and changed. I explore my own research through expert witnessing and working in a shelter to focus on two interrelated themes: the limits and possibilities of expert witnessing in the U.S. asylum system, and the limits and possibilities for critical knowledge production in what some have termed the humanitarian industrial complex and accompanying solidarity efforts. I conclude by suggesting ways that research and engagement can provide ideas for innovation of the U.S. asylum system.